Glen Elm Captures Third Consecutive Mayor's School Challenge

Glen Elms runs on and on!

In June, Glen Elm beads the odds to win again. Glen Elm School won the Mayor’s Challenge in the I Love Regina Run. While a number of other schools participated, Glen Elm had the most participants with over 50 students involved in the run. Representatives from the city attended the school’s end of the year assembly where they presented a cheque for the school for $500, the Mayor’s ‘running shoe trophy’ as well as pedometers for each participant.

Grades 1-2 teacher, Wendy Lazarou started training her students to run during the first year of working full time at Glen Elm School. Her students would start the year running one lap in their gym class and, by the end of the school year, were running 3 kilometers.

In 2009 Wendy decided that her students needed a goal for their running. She sent an email to Mayor Pat Fiacco, asking if there was a possibility of having her students sponsored. He forwarded the email and a sponsor was found. In 2010, Wendy had 12 of her students run 3km in the I Love Regina Run.

The next year, Wendy decided that the challenge should be school wide. She asked the rest of the school to join her students in the ILR run. She now has over 50 students committed to doing the run on June 10. The interest has spread in the school community as many parents no join their children in the run.

The school is also committed to maintaining a high level of activity on an ongoing basis. As such, the teachers put on a walking club each Spring, the goal of which is to walk 25km in just over a month.

This commitment to having physically active students has earned Glen Elm School the designation of being an In Motion school.